Commenting after the latest Ukrainian strikes on the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, the British defense minister has said Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been rendered “functionally inactive.”
Grant Shapps shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, by the Ukrainian defense ministry claiming responsibility for missile strikes on Sevastopol on Sunday.
Open-source intelligence accounts suggested British-provided Storm Shadow missiles were used in the strikes while Russian milbloggers says Neptune missiles, ADM-160 decoy missiles, and drones were used. Ukrainian military intelligence said damage to the Russian vessel Yamal is critical and that “a breach in the upper deck caused the ship to list to starboard.”
Ropucha-class landing shipsYamal and Azov were struck as were the fleet’s communications center and other infrastructure facilities in the latest attack. Kyiv boasted about “great news” in the Ukrainian defense ministry post that ended, “Bravo! Crimea is Ukraine!”
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Next to the shared post, Shapps wrote, “Putin’s continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which is now functionally inactive.
“Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain (its) fleet to port. And even there Putin’s ships are sinking!”
Kyiv has vowed to recapture the Crimea Peninsula which has been occupied by Russia since 2014 and partially hosts the Black Sea Fleet. Although it only has a small navy, Ukraine has used missiles and naval drones to great effect against Russian vessels, crippling its naval capabilities.
Putin’s continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which is now functionally inactive. Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain it’s fleet to port. And even there Putin’s ships are sinking! https://t.co/Oghcis4xcP
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 24, 2024
The Hudson Institute think tank told Newsweek earlier this month that Ukraine had sunk or heavily damaged around a third of the Black Sea Fleet, and this would increase to a half by next year.
Recent Russian losses included the Ropucha-class Caesar Kunikov in February, the Olenegorsky Gornyak Iast August, the Ropucha-class Minsk the next month and the Novocherkassk landing ship in December.
The attacks have increased in frequency in recent months forcing Russia eastward, towards Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port city in Russian territory, but this move has hampered Moscow’s ability to operate in the western part of the sea.
Ukrainian officials say Russia’s other fleet bases are structurally inferior to the one in Sevastopol and that Moscow’s forces still must do some tasks, like reloading Kalibr missile systems on vessels, in Sevastopol because other bases lack the capacity.
In its update on Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that whatever the damage caused, the latest Ukrainian strikes on the Black Sea Fleet’s ships will likely continue to deter Russia from redeploying vessels to Sevastopol and the western Black Sea and “complicate the (fleet’s) ability to maximize its combat capabilities.”
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.